Centre of South Asian Studies at SOAS: Members

Richard Axelby

Member, Centre of South Asian Studies

India, especially the Western Himalayas; environmental history, natural resource management, nomadic pastoralism and agrarian change

Email: ra39@soas.ac.uk
Room: 580
Office Hours: By email appointment

Rochana Bajpai

Member, Centre of South Asian Studies

Contemporary political theory, particularly multiculturalism; methodology, particularly political ideologies; modern Indian politics

Tel: 020 7898 4750
Email: rb6@soas.ac.uk
Room: 208
Office Hours: Wednesdays 1-3pm

Crispin Branfoot

Member, Centre of South Asian Studies

Architecture, sculpture and painting in South Asia, especially in southern India; pilgrimage and sacred geography; material religion; colonialism and material culture.

Tel: 020 7898 4450
Email: crispin.branfoot@soas.ac.uk
Room: B311
Office Hours: Mondays 3-4pm (during term time)

James Caron

Member, Centre of South Asian Studies

Islam in South Asia; Afghanistan and Pakistan; Indo-Persianate sociocultural history; transnational non-Western history; activism and social movements.

Tel: 020 7898 4295
Email: jc84@soas.ac.uk
Room: 468
Office Hours: Mondays 13:00-17:00 / Fridays By appointment

Deepita Chakravarty

Member, Centre of South Asian Studies

Labour market behaviours in developing countries with a focus on South Asia, Gender questions, Development issues related to industry and services, Industrial organization.

Tel: 0207 898 4517
Email: dc17@soas.ac.uk
Room: 478
Office Hours: Fridays: 3pm - 5pm

Michael W. Charney

Member, Centre of South Asian Studies

The history of Buddhist societies in South and Southeast Asia and of culture, technology, and warfare in colonial Africa and Asia

Tel: 020 7898 4612
Email: mc62@soas.ac.uk
Room: 326
Office Hours: Wednesdays 12-1pm

Whitney Cox

Member, Centre of South Asian Studies

Sanskrit literature and literary theory, Tamil literature, intellectual and cultural history of South India, History of Saivism

Email: wc3@soas.ac.uk
Room: 458
On Sabbatical:2012-13

Philippe Cullet

Member, Centre of South Asian Studies

Law and environment, law and natural resources, intellectual property, water, human rights, international law, India.

Tel: 020 7898 4651
Email: pcullet@soas.ac.uk
Room: 226
Office Hours: Wednesday 3:00 to 5:00pm

Hindi Cinema; Indian popular culture; Indian film; Hinduism; new middle classes; Mumbai/Bombay; Gujarati language and literature; Gujarati diaspora esp UK and East Africa; comparative Indian literature.

Tel: 020 7898 4294
Email: rd3@soas.ac.uk
Room: 457
On Sabbatical:2012-13, Terms 1 & 2

Heather Elgood

Member, Centre of South Asian Studies

Dr Heather Elgood is the Course Director of the Diploma in Asian Art. She is a specialist in Persian, Jain, Sultanate and Mughal manuscript painting as well as the ritual arts of Hinduism.

Tel: 020 7898 4445
Email: he2@soas.ac.uk
Room: B312

Roy Fischel

Member, Centre of South Asian Studies

History of precolonial South Asia, in particular Muslim polities and societies; the Deccan, 1300-1700; South Asia and the early modern Muslim world.

Tel: 020 7898 4643
Email: rf26@soas.ac.uk
Room: 312
Office Hours: Wednesdays 11am-1pm

Alexander Fischer

Member, Centre of South Asian Studies

Tel: 020 7898 4302
Email: af5@soas.ac.uk
Room: 259
Office Hours: Tuesday 13:30- 15:30

Peter Flügel

Member, Centre of South Asian Studies

Jaina Studies; South Asian History & Culture; Anthropology & Sociology of Religion

Tel: +44 (0)20 7898 4776
Email: pf8@soas.ac.uk
Room: 593
Office Hours: All Year - Fridays 3-5pm (during term time)

Jonathan Goodhand

Member, Centre of South Asian Studies

South and Central Asia; complex political emergencies, humanitarian aid; NGO capacity building, aid, conflict and development

Tel: 020 7898 4483
Email: jg27@soas.ac.uk
Room: 296
Office Hours: Monday 2-4

Jan-Peter Hartung

Member, Centre of South Asian Studies

Tel: +44 (0)20 7898 4383
Email: Jh74@soas.ac.uk
Room: 333
Office Hours: Wednesdays 12:30-2:30pm

Mulaika Hijjas

Member, Centre of South Asian Studies

Literature, film, gender and cultural studies, social history.

Email: mh86@soas.ac.uk

Almut Hintze

Member, Centre of South Asian Studies

Dr Hintze takes an interest in all aspects of Zoroastrianism, the religion of pre-Islamic Iran.

Tel: 020 7898 4598
Email: ah69@soas.ac.uk
Room: 334
Office Hours: Tuesdays 12-1pm (and by Appointment)

Stephen P Hughes

Member, Centre of South Asian Studies

India, especially the Tamil-speaking south, and Sri Lanka: popular cinema, media theory, historical anthropology and visual anthropology

Tel: 020 7898 4070
Email: sh37@soas.ac.uk
Room: 558
Office Hours: Wednesdays 11am-1pm

Michael J Hutt

Chair, Centre of South Asian Studies

Nepali literature; the Nepali media; Nepali politics; Bhutanese refugees.

Tel: 020 7898 4286
Email: mh8@soas.ac.uk
Room: 448
Office Hours: Tuesdays 16:00-17:00/Thursdays 11:00-12:00

Naila Kabeer

Member, Centre of South Asian Studies

Gender; Work and Labour; Livelihoods; Social Protection; Microfinance; Specialising in the following regions: Central and South Asia; South East Asia.

Tel: 020 7898 4488
Email: nk34@soas.ac.uk
Room: 291
Office Hours: Wednesday 11-1

Mushtaq Khan

Member, Centre of South Asian Studies

South and South East Asia: institutional economics and political economy; the economics of rent seeking, corruption and patron-client networks; late industrialisation and the state

Tel: 020 7898 4546
Email: mk100@soas.ac.uk
Room: 284
Office Hours: Mondays 2pm - 4pm

Martin W Lau

Member, Centre of South Asian Studies

Laws of South Asia; comparative environmental law, Islamic law

Tel: 020 7898 4657
Email: ml1@soas.ac.uk
Room: 231
Office Hours: Tuesday 10:30 - 12:30

Jens Lerche

Member, Centre of South Asian Studies

India; labour, social movements and globalisation; labour and the ILO; labour and caste in India; agrarian political economy.

Tel: 020 7898 4505
Email: jl2@soas.ac.uk
Room: 295
Office Hours: Monday 10-12
On Sabbatical:Term 3 2012-13

Magnus Marsden

Member, Centre of South Asian Studies

Social anthropology of Pakistan, Central Asia and the Middle East; anthropology of religion (especially Islam), the interaction between religious and political transformations within and beyond South Asia and the Muslim world, as well as the study of transnational identity formations.

Tel: +44 (0)20 7898 4491
Email: mm101@soas.ac.uk
Room: 588
On Sabbatical:Research Leave 2012-13

Werner F Menski

Member, Centre of South Asian Studies

Classical and modern Hindu law; Muslim Law; Laws of South Asia; Family law; Comparative law; South Asians in the UK; Immigration law; Ethnic minorities

Tel: 020 7898 4674
Email: wm4@soas.ac.uk
Room: 233
Office Hours: Wednesday 8:30- 10:30
On Sabbatical:2012-13

Alessandra Mezzadri

Member

International trade, global commodity chains, industrial development and labour markets in developing countries, social structures and inequality; structures of production and labour in the Indian export-oriented garment industry

Tel: 0207 898 4533
Email: am99@soas.ac.uk
Room: 4414
Office Hours: Tuesday 11am-1pm
On Sabbatical:Term 3 2012-13

Satoshi Miyamura

Member, Centre of South Asian Studies

Regions: South & East Asia. Countries: India, Japan. Subjects: Development economics, Labour economics, Institutional economics, Labour-management bargaining; Research methods in economics.

Tel: +44 (0)20 7898 4544
Email: sm97@soas.ac.uk
Room: 554
Office Hours: Term 2 - Wednesday 11.30-13.00

Peter P Mollinga

Member, Centre of South Asian Studies

South Asia, Central Asia; comparative political sociology of water resources and development; technology and agrarian change; boundary work in natural resources management; interdisciplinary social theory.

Tel: 020 7898 4631
Email: pm35@soas.ac.uk
Room: 517
Office Hours: By appointment only

David Mosse

Member, Centre of South Asian Studies

India, especially Tamil Nadu and adivasi western India; caste and religion, dalit politics, vernacular Christianity, environmental history, common property resources, indigenous irrigation, participatory rural development, aid agencies, anthropology of development

Tel: 020 7898 4426
Email: dm21@soas.ac.uk
Room: 573
Office Hours: Fridays 11am-1pm

Rakesh Nautiyal

Member, Centre of South Asian Studies

Hindi language

Tel: 020 7898 4304
Email: rn17@soas.ac.uk
Room: 454
Office Hours: Wednesdays 11:30-13:30/Fridays 11:00-13:00

Nandini Nayak

Member, Centre of South Asian Studies

Email: nn1@soas.ac.uk

Eleanor Newbigin

Member, Centre of South Asian Studies

History of modern South Asia, particularly the transition to independence; gender, family and law in colonial and post-colonial India

Tel: 020 7898 4625
Email: en2@soas.ac.uk
Room: 307
Office Hours: Wed 12:00-13:30 / Thurs 11:30-12:30

Paolo Novak

Member, Centre of South Asian Studies

Trans-nationality with particular reference to migration; refugee regime; borders and NGOs.

Tel: 020 7898 4214
Email: pn4@soas.ac.uk
Room: 368
Office Hours: Tuesday 11am-1pm (terms 1 & 2)

Francesca Orsini

Member, Centre of South Asian Studies

Hindi Literature; North Indian literary cultures; Hindi; Urdu.

Tel: 020 7898 4242
Email: fo@soas.ac.uk
Room: 419
Office Hours: Thursday 10:00 - 12:00

Caroline Osella

Member, Centre of South Asian Studies

Kerala, South Asia, South Asian diaspora: ethnophysiology, concepts of person, gender, ethnicity, psychology and anthropology.

Tel: 020 7898 4427
Email: co6@soas.ac.uk
Room: 582
Office Hours: Term 2 - Mondays 3-5pm

Tina Otten

Member, Centre of South Asian Studies

South Asia, social change, ritual and politics, medical anthropology, oral epics, gender relations

Tel: 020 7898 4786
Email: to9@soas.ac.uk
Room: 4408

Ulrich Pagel

Member, Centre of South Asian Studies

History of Buddhism in Tibet, Mahāyāna Buddhism, Kanjur Studies, Vinaya, Religions of Central Asia, Tibetan, Sanskrit.

Tel: 020 7898 4782
Email: up1@soas.ac.uk
Room: Room 338
Office Hours: Term 2 - Mondays 3-5pm

Krishna Pradhan

Member, Centre of South Asian Studies

Nepali Language

Tel: +44 (0)20 7898 4297
Email: kp15@soas.ac.uk
Room: 460
Office Hours: Mondays 11:00 - 13:00

Theodore Proferes

Member, Centre of South Asian Studies

Tel: 020 7898 4637
Email: tp17@soas.ac.uk
Room: 378
Office Hours: Term 2 - Thursdays 3-5pm

Parvathi Raman

Member, Centre of South Asian Studies

The Indian Community in South Africa; Politics and identity in South Africa; African and Asian Communities in Britain; Political and cultural issues in Diaspora Studies; Historical anthropology; Philosophical issues in anthropology.

Tel: 020 7898 4434
Email: pr1@soas.ac.uk
Room: 571
Office Hours: Wednesdays 11am-1pm or by Appointment

Rahul Rao

Member, Centre of South Asian Studies

International Security; Indian foreign policy; Political Theory; Social Movements; Human Rights

Tel: 020 7898 4534
Email: rr18@soas.ac.uk
Room: 4424
Office Hours: Mondays 1100-1300

Peter Robb

Member, Centre of South Asian Studies

The history of modern South Asia; early Calcutta, c.1780-1830, Indian agrarian history, especially Bihar and Eastern India.

Tel: 0207 898 4614
Email: pr4@soas.ac.uk
Room: 4411

Lawrence Sáez

Member, Centre of South Asian Studies

International political economy, comparative political economy, emerging markets; energy security; fiscal federalism; South Asia

Tel: +44 (0)20 7898 4725
Email: ls4@soas.ac.uk
Room: 202
Office Hours: Thursdays 1-3pm
On Sabbatical:Term 2, 2012-13

Tommaso Sbriccoli

Member, Centre of South Asian Studies

India, especially politics and society of Rajasthan; nomadic pastoralism; traditional legal systems and legal pluralism; refugee issues; anthropology and semiotics; theory of culture.

Email: ts19@soas.ac.uk
Room: 4408

Pasquale Scaramozzino

Member, Centre of South Asian Studies

Macroeconomics; fiscal policy; applied econometrics

Tel: 020 7898 4055
Email: ps6@soas.ac.uk
Room: 528
Office Hours: By appointment

Naresh Sharma

Member

Urdu and Hindi language

Tel: 020 7898 4296
Email: ns19@soas.ac.uk
Room: 454
Office Hours: Tuesdays 14:00-15:00 / Thursdays 14:00-15:00

Amrita Shodhan

Member, Centre of South Asian Studies

Tel: 020 7898 4627
Email: as115@soas.ac.uk
Room: 311
Office Hours: All Year - Wed 1:30-3:30pm (during term time)

Edward Simpson

Member, Centre of South Asian Studies

Islam in South Asia; politics, ethnography, and society of Gujarat; social theory and the western Indian Ocean; the ethnography of reconstruction after catastrophic natural disasters

Tel: 020 7898 4481
Email: es7@soas.ac.uk
Room: 589
Office Hours: Term 2 - Research Leave, email to make appointment

Gurharpal Singh

Member, Centre of South Asian Studies

Professor Gurharpal Singh is the Dean of the Faculty of Arts and Humanities and Professor in Inter-Religious Relation and Development in the Department of Study of Religions.

Tel: 020 7898 4108
Email: gs41@soas.ac.uk
Room: 319

Subir Sinha

Member, Centre of South Asian Studies

South Asia: institutions of development, NGOs, social movements; the environment, common property institutions and resource use

Tel: 020 7898 4495
Email: ss61@soas.ac.uk
Room: 287
Office Hours: Wednesday 11-1
On Sabbatical:Terms 2 and 3 2012/2013

Chandra Lekha Sriram

Member

International human rights law, international criminal law, transitional justice, conflict prevention, conflict resolution and post-conflict peace building in Africa, South Asia and Latin America.

Tel: 0207 898 4540
Email: cs79@soas.ac.uk
Room: 541
Office Hours: Monday 15.00 to 17.00pm

Sarah Stewart

Member, Centre of South Asian Studies

Lecturer in Zoroastrianism, with particular reference to the living tradition in Iran and India. Convenor: Islam in Britain.

Tel: +44 (0)20 7898 4270
Email: ss7@soas.ac.uk
Room: 331

Shabnum Tejani

Member, Centre of South Asian Studies

Nineteenth and twentieth century social and intellectual history, particularly of the Bombay Presidency; communalism and nationalism in India; debates around secularism and religious intolerance

Tel: 020 7898 4613
Email: st40@soas.ac.uk
Room: 314

Simona Vittorini

Member, Centre of South Asian Studies

Nationalism; South Asian politics; modern Indian politics

Tel: 020 7898 4757
Email: sv4@soas.ac.uk
Room: 221
Office Hours: Thursdays 4-5pm

Burzine K Waghmar

Member, Centre of South Asian Studies

Indo-Iranian History, Historical Geography and Philology (Avestan, Old Persian, Parthian, Pahlavi, Sanskrit, Hindi, Gujarati, Marathi, Urdu, Pashto, Balochi and Kashmiri); Languages and Religions of Late Antiquity and the Silk Road (Bactrian, Khotanese, Sogdian, contacts among Zoroastrianism, Manichaeism and early Islam); Pakistan studies (Ancient and early Medieval History, Dardic and Nuristani dialectology, ethnography and topography of NWFP, FATA, Northern Areas and Trans-Karakoram Tract); Pakistani minorities; HUMINT counterterrorism and linguistic analysis; South Asian Muslim psycho-sociology; Muslim non-Muslim relations (Iran, Pakistan, Bangladesh).

Email: bw3@soas.ac.uk
Office Hours: Thursdays and Fridays

Farzana Whitfield

Member, Centre of South Asian Studies

Tel: 020 7898 4153
Email: fq@soas.ac.uk

D Richard Widdess

Member, Centre of South Asian Studies

North Indian art-music; history of music in South Asia; Newar music; music theory and analysis

Tel: 020 7898 4685
Email: rw4@soas.ac.uk
Room: 507
Office Hours: Mondays 5:30-6:30pm / Thursdays 5-6pm

Amina Yaqin

Member, Centre of South Asian Studies

Urdu language and literature; post-colonial literature and theory; gender studies; South Asian literatures in English; feminism in a Third World context; gender and politics in Pakistan

Tel: 020 7898 4305
Email: ay@soas.ac.uk
Room: 470
Office Hours: Wednesdays 10:00-12:00

Cosimo Zene

Member, Centre of South Asian Studies

Anthropology of religion, theory in the study of religions, continental philosophy, Gramsci and religion, intercultural and inter-religious dialogue, minorities (Dalits), mysticism and heresy, non-Western Christianities, Mediterranean anthropology; South-Asia (India, Bangladesh), Sardinia.

Tel: 020 7898 4783
Email: zc@soas.ac.uk
Room: 340
Office Hours: Term 1 - Tuesdays 2:30-4pm / Thursdays 15:30-5pm

Maha Hosain Aziz

Research Associate

Democratization, Development, Militancy

Email: ma113@soas.ac.uk
Office Hours: By appointment only

Mara Malagodi

Research Associate

South Asian laws and politics, especially Nepal, India and Pakistan; comparative constitutional law; law and conflict; human rights

Email: mm112@soas.ac.uk

Avril A Powell

Research Associate

Islam in South Asia; Mughal history; Muslim-Christian relations

Email: ap5@soas.ac.uk

Kavita Ramdya

Research Associate

South Asian-American Literature, Literature of the Indian Subcontinent, Post-Colonial Literature, Hinduism, Indian Immigration

Email: kr9@soas.ac.uk

Yuthika Sharma

Research Associate

History of art, South Asian Studies

Email: ys9@soas.ac.uk